Amidst all the talk of seven-day initial opioid script limits in New York, Massachusetts and New Hampshire (with New Jersey, Connecticut and others likely not far behind), we appear to have missed a piece of legislation that, in my view, represents the single most stringent legal construct f...Read More

Hardly a day, a conference, a meeting or a case goes by without a serious discussion about the need for a "biopsychosocial" approach to injury resolution. In fact, I've recently heard griping in some circles that the discussion has run its course. "We get it ... can w...Read More

A new bill was introduced last week by U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia). The bill calls for a tax on opioids to the tune of 1 cent per milligram. This tax will fall primarily to the payer community.
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Say the name "ProPublica" in a work comp meeting these days and watch what happens. It's like a pinata at a little kid's birthday party: Everyone takes a swing, only a precious few actually connect (but when they do connect, we all get candy, or something like that).
...Read More

In response to the NLRB’s pronouncement of joint employer status between two distinct business entities in Browning-Ferris Industries, a handful of state legislatures, including Texas, have passed legislation to protect the franchise industry from exposure to lawsuits for franchisees&r...Read More

Imagine getting the chance to hear the president speak in person. Now imagine he comes to your home town to offer some thoughts on a given topic. Finally, imagine the topic of his remarks is the very center of your professional life and something you eat, sleep and breathe every da...Read More

Dr. Mitchell Katz of the Los Angeles County Health Department wrote an editorial that was published in last week's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA has made this set...Read More

Today's Round Up

03/20/2018 |
41 |
0 |
min read

The North Carolina Department of Insurance has hired 15 new agents to fight a rising tide of insurance fraud.
Mike Causey
The state's General Assembly last year appropriated $2.4 million to hire the agents after fraud arrests jumped to 334 in 2017, a 60% increase from the previous year, state Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey said in news release. Each month, the department receives 400 to 500 fraud complaints, Causey said.
The new agents were trained at the department's anti-fraud academy and include a crime analyst, forensic accountant, attorneys and special agents.
...
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03/19/2018 |
160 |
0 |
37 min read

Texas could make better use of stop-work orders to crack down on employers who misclassify workers as contractors to avoid paying workers' compensation, a Washington, D.C., think tank said this week.
Andrew Elmore
The Migration Policy Institute, which studies migration worldwide, on Thursday released a study that shows immigrants are twice as likely as native-born workers to be employed in industries in which labor violations are widespread.
Misclassifying workers as independent contractors is common in low-wage businesses, the report said.
Some states, including Texas, are not ...
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